Mamma Mia! As Zoe Ball hosts a TV search for stars of a new Abba musical… after 30 years at the top, she says she still gets ‘imposter syndrome’

She is one of Britain’s most experienced broadcasters, not to mention the BBC’s highest-paid woman. But if you were to ask Zoe Ball if she’s good enough, her answer might surprise you.

“I get nervous and worry that sometimes I’m not good enough at my job,” says Ms Ball, who takes home £980,000 a year for her Radio 2 breakfast show.

“I think we all have, I think we all have good days and bad days. I don’t think it’s a women’s thing – all people have that feeling. We all have good days and bad days when you worry.

“You have to be able to be a little critical of yourself, to try hard, you have to be self-aware because otherwise you’ll get lost in show business, and nobody wants that.”

“I’m 52 years old, I’ve been doing this for 30 years, and I still have full, excited nerves.” I remember my dad telling me that you don’t care the day you’re not nervous.’

Despite being in show business for 30 years, broadcaster Zoe Ball, who hosts the new ITV show, Mamma Mia! I have a dream, she admitted to suffering from imposter syndrome

Mrs Ball – the daughter of children’s TV legend Johnny Ball – catapulted to stardom in the 1990s as one of the fledgling ‘ladettes’, although she insists it was ‘just a word’ and she has ‘grown up a bit, though hopefully not too much’ .

Along with Sarah Cock and Denise Van Outen, she quickly became an in-demand broadcaster – hosting Top Of The Pops, the children’s show Live & Kicking and the Radio 1 breakfast show.

But now, for the first time, she is hosting a primetime show for ITV – Mamma Mia: I Have a Dream, in which 12 candidates compete for the lead role in the new West End adaptation of the first Mamma Mia film.

Veteran broadcaster: Zoe Ball takes home £980,000 a year for her Radio 2 breakfast show

It is being shot on the Greek island of Corfu, where most of the original film was set, and we meet during a break in filming.

She plays down the fact that it’s an ITV show, saying: “It wasn’t weird. It’s not about where you work, it’s about the project.’

The move was not without controversy, including the fact that she took time out from her Radio 2 commitments to record the show and did not tell her listeners where she was, saying her involvement was a secret.

She says she used the holiday to get time off, after asking her boss “nicely”. “It was a bit of a nervous wait, but luckily Radio 2 are big Abba fans, we play a lot of Abba and Helen (Thomas), my boss at Radio 2 is a big Mamma Mia fan and he said, ‘You’ve got to do it, it’ll be so much fun, ‘so I moved the holidays and we managed to make everything work.’

Zoe with ex-husband DJ Norman Cook, whom she was married to from 1999 to 2016.

Mrs Ball feels rather motherly towards the contestants on the show, who are trying to win one of the coveted leading roles of Sophie and Skye.

They are, Ms. Ball says, the same age as her son Woody (23). She admits she’s a bit disappointed that none of the contestants have linked up, but admits: ‘It’s not like Love Island.’

What about her? She is currently single, but when asked if she is looking for love, she simply said, ‘No.’

She split from her longtime partner Michael Reid, a model, in May. Before that, she dated cameraman Billy Yates, who took his own life after they broke up. She was married to DJ Norman Cook from 1999 to 2016.

Ms Ball was dressed in a striking hot pink trouser suit on the day I interviewed her at the five-star hotel where she was staying with the ITV show’s director Judy Cramer and judges Alan Carr, Jessie Ware, Samantha Barks and US star Amber Riley. But she fears the ensemble makes her look like Peppa Pig.

She recalls talking about what she should look like on the show. “My stylist talked to production and they were like, ‘Zoe, no black,’ and I totally freaked out because that’s all I do.

“But I accepted the color. Although whenever I wear pink, all I can think about is in White Lotus where she (Jennifer Coolidge’s self-obsessed heiress character) says, ‘Who do I look like?’ and (the hotel manager) says, ‘Peppa Pig!’ So I could look like Peppa Pig.

“I’m embracing color now, in my 50s, it’s great. Who knew? I mean, look at me now, I’m in hot pink, I like it, I enjoy showing a different side to myself, it’s quite fun to be honest.

“I can’t really shoot a lot of things in the sun, so it was nice.”

But one thing she can’t do is take to social media to share her newfound fashion sense – because her 13-year-old daughter Nelly has banned her.

“She’s like, ‘Mom, don’t put that on TikTok’ and stuff like that.’ she laughs.

Mamma Mia! I Have A Dream starts on ITV at 6pm next week